Skunk Anansie @ Birmingham Academy, 4th February 2011

Entering the O2 Academy tonight it’s warm and a tad smelly – reminiscent of the old venue at Dale End. Joining a reasonably packed and truly mixed crowd including students, rockers and punks of a wide age range, we’re here to see the rescheduled Skunk Anansie gig postponed from late last year. An early evening performance, SA are due on at 8pm with curfew by 10pm.

Merging beautiful soulful vocals and indie in-your-face aggression, front-woman Skin is no doubt one of the most striking lead singers in rock, in a world where few women can carry it off. I have to say, I’m not a massive fan of female rock vocalists as they invariably can’t give it the welly rock tracks need, but Skin is the true exception to rule.

Formed in London in ‘94 (named after the West African folk tale of Anansi the spider-man) SA split in 2001, only to reform in 2009 to issue a greatest hits album and record new tracks and new album ‘Wonderlustre’ in 2010. This sees the four original members, Skin, Cass, Ace and Mark, back together…

Skin is a striking figure when she appears on stage, shaven headed, in skin- tight leather and garbed in a massive black feather collar, giving it in-your- face aggression to ‘ Yes It’s Fucking Political’. Live they are far heavier than they are on record.

When she speaks, she has a tiny voice – you wouldn’t think she had it in her. Yet during ‘Weak’ she climbs into the middle of the audience, literally standing on the shoulders of two “very, big strong Birmingham Boys”, arms aloft. And once again, during ‘Every Day Hurts A Little More’ she participates in more crowd surfing – she has more balls than most male rock lead singers. As the gig goes on it gets louder and louder til the drums and bass could make your ears bleed and unfortunately begin to drown out her vocals. Skin is still leaping around, telling everyone to “Jump! Jump! Jump!” along to new track ‘Tear The Place Up’.

Off for a break, and back on for the encore, the crowd sing-a-long-a-chorus ‘Hedonism (Just Because You Feel Good)’, before their new single and finall an older classic track. An hour and a half set, full of energy!

Tonight’s set is a mixture of SA classics and new tracks, a mixture of soulful ballads, indie anthems and drum & bass. In some ways, this is what makes Skunk Anansie a dichotomy. They had a lot of success in the 90s; three great studio albums that spent a record breaking 141 weeks in the charts – making them, surprisingly, one of the most successful chart acts in the UK. If they hadn’t split and took their indie venom and drum and bass mix with them, they could have achieved what bands such as The Prodigy achieved. And then there was the true commercialism of ‘Hedonism’ that took them to the masses. Either way, splitting and reforming nearly a decade later leaves them playing to less than 2,000 people at £20 per ticket.

Worth seeing? Expect energy, expect in-your-face aggression, expect great vocals, expect great playing from the other SA members. The new stuff isn’t as good as their older stuff in my opinion, but if you feeling like bouncing your socks off whilst watching one of the most unusual and dynamic singers out there Skunk Anansie are well worth a punt.

Set list:
1. Yes It’s Fucking Political
2. Charlie Big Potato
3. Because Of You
4. God Only Loves You
5. 100 Ways to be a Good Girl
6. Talk Too Much
7. Over The Love
8. I Can Dream
9. My Ugly Boy
10. The Sweetest Thing
11.Weak
12. Brazen (Weep)
13. My Love Will Fall
14. Twisted
15. On My Hotel TV
16. Tear The Place Up
17. The Skank Heads

Encore included Hedonism (Just Because You Feel Good) and new single You Saved Me

Review – Zyllah Moranne-Brown
Photos – Katja Ogrin

Listening:
Paranoid & Sunburnt (1995)
Stoosh (1996)
Post Orgasmic Chill (1999)
Wonderlustre (2010)

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